Camera builder creates more jobs and will move to Village Gate in Rochester

FluxData, a company that manufactures multispectral cameras for aerospace, defense, industry, medical and scientific markets, is graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology’s Venture Creations business incubator and moving into a 4,500-square-foot space at Village Gate.

The company, which produced a camera used in the International Space Station that helped farmers understand changes to their land, has been in Venture Creations since 2008, says FluxData CEO Pano Spiliotis, a 1999 imaging science and 2001 MBA graduate from RIT.

He founded the company with two other RIT graduates: his wife, Tracie Spiliotis, a 1999 accounting and 2001 MBA graduate, and Lawrence Taplin, a 2001 masters graduate in color science.

“We’ve grown each year since we’ve been here,” he said.

FluxData has eight full-time employees and they will nearly be doubling their space when they move to Village Gate.

FluxData builds cameras that can take images in red, green and near infrared wavelength bands, enabling it to detect images traditional cameras can’t, such as picking out camouflage in a forest. Much of its business is with the U.S. Department of Defense, Spiliotis said.

The connection with RIT has been valuable, enabling FluxData to hire RIT students for co-ops, collaborating with RIT’s Center of Imaging Science and engage in sponsored research with the college.

“Venture Creations has been our home for so long, it’s sad leaving, but yet it’s a good thing because that means we’re growing and successful,” Tracie Spiliotis said.

About Venture Creations

RIT’s Venture Creations incubator is where young companies can advance their concepts to become profitable, viable businesses and use resources such as coaching, networking and connections to potential investors. It also is home to RIT’s NYSERDA-sponsored Clean Energy Incubator, a joint industry outreach effort by Venture Creations and the Golisano Institute for Sustainability to assist early-stage clean energy companies in product development, business and marketing planning and technology commercialization. The incubator is one of six statewide and part of New York State’s clean energy initiative.

Venture Creations is located on Tech Park Drive, off John Street, which borders the east side of the RIT’s Henrietta campus. Since opening in 2003, it has housed 57 companies, created 340 jobs and brought in more than $30 million in private capital raised.